


guiding light

by starkly



Series: you don't have to do this alone [24]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Angels & Demons, Gen, Guardian Angels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-26
Updated: 2018-01-26
Packaged: 2019-03-09 21:04:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13489755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starkly/pseuds/starkly
Summary: James never wanted to be a guardian angel. Nearly double the workload and none of the recognition? Who would want that? But it’s not very angelic to complain about an assignment, so he did as he was told, went to Earth and began watching over one Anthony Edward Stark. And oh boy was his work cut out for him there.





	guiding light

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for NaNoWriMo 2017 and posted at [dailyironfamily](http://dailyironfamily.tumblr.com/post/167860795755/day-24-angeldemon-au) on tumblr. This fic was proofread before being posted here but is otherwise unchanged.
> 
> Day twenty-four: angel/demon AU. Featuring angel Rhodey, demon Pepper, and human Tony. This was another one of those ‘big idea’ fics shoved into a small word count but I tried my best.

James never wanted to be a guardian angel. Nearly double the workload and none of the recognition? Who would want that? But it’s not very angelic to complain about an assignment, so he did as he was told, went to Earth and began watching over one Anthony Edward Stark. And oh boy was his work cut out for him there.

It was a little odd that Stark didn’t get assigned a guardian angel until he was almost forty, but then not everyone even got one, so he figures Stark must be someone important now. Son of a famous industrialist, and famous in his own right, Stark had survived a kidnapping and near-death experience only to come home and become some sort of superhero vigilante.

James sighs and closes the file he’d been reading. What did he say? Double the workload and none of the recognition. He spends his first two days on the job trying to stop a madman in a giant metal suit from murdering his charge, for crying out loud.

And then she shows up.

“Oh, no,” he says when he sees her lounging on the couch outside the room where Stark’s press conference is about to happen. “You are the last thing I need to deal with right now. Please go.”

“Oh, no problem, I’ll just leave now,” she says cheerfully, and doesn’t move.

James sighs. “At least I tried.”

Pepper sits up on the couch, crossing her legs. “It’s been decades, James, you could be nicer.”

“I think I’m contractually obligated not to be nice to you.”

“I think you’re obligated to be nice to everyone. Even me.” She smiles at him, tail flicking out behind her, and preens her wings slightly, dark feathers almost inky in the bright fluorescent lights.

“Put all that away, no one can see us,” he complains. “What are you doing here?”

She gives him a look, but the wings and tail vanish. “What do you think?” She looks over at where Stark is reviewing the cards SHIELD prepared for him, and James’s eyes go wide.

“Don’t you dare. You’re just going to make trouble for him.”

Pepper gets up, stepping closer to James, who takes a step back. “That’s kind of my job.”

“He almost died, maybe even would’ve if it wasn’t for me. Cut him some sl―” He stops, a terrible realization coming over him. “You’re not Stane’s, are you?”

Pepper scowls at him, temper darkening her eyes for a brief moment. “As if I would ever. That kind of man’s not my department.”

“And Stark is?”

“You have your job, I have mine. Let’s play nice, okay?” She waves politely, then vanishes.

Across the room, Stark tucks the cards into his suit jacket and stands as the SHIELD agent approaches and tells him he’s on in five. James sticks close to him the whole way to the podium, keeping a watchful eye on the proceedings, but he doesn’t see Pepper again.

Then Stark sets down the cards and says “I am Iron Man” to a room full of reporters, and James knows he’s lost the first round.

* * *

Tony Stark is dying. James watches over him and guides his hand, but without directly intervening, there’s nothing he can do.

“Just cure him,” Pepper says, sipping a smoothie through a straw. She’s wearing sunglasses and the world’s most obnoxious hat with feathers, like she’s at some fancy British horse-racing track and not the Monaco Grand Prix.

“I can’t just  _cure_  him,” James snaps, already angry at her. Five minutes ago Stark decided he wanted to drive his own car in the race, and James knows exactly whose fault that is.

“What’s the point of having a guardian angel, then?”

“The point is to make sure he doesn’t go getting into dangerous race cars that could kill him!”

“Oh, well you’re doing a poor job of it so far.”

James grits his teeth and leaves before he says something unbecoming of a guardian angel.

Then everything goes to hell.

Stark’s car flips, attacked by the man with the electric whips, and James swoops in to pull him unharmed from the wreckage. Stark’s on shaky legs as he climbs out of the car, a little bit of blood on his face but otherwise untouched. And he’s staring right at James like he can see him, bright white wings and all.

A whip comes slamming down between them, crackling as it hits the car, and Stark jumps away, the moment broken. James deflects the hits, shielding Stark, who stumbles to the ground. James raises his hand, ready to deflect again, but out of nowhere a car crashes into the man with the whips. Stark’s bodyguard gets out, holding a briefcase, and Pepper steps out the other door.

“What are you doing?” he nearly shouts at Pepper while Stark grabs the briefcase and puts on a suit. “Don’t tell me this is your guy.” He points at their attacker, who is somehow  _not_  unconscious after being hit by a car.

“He’s not mine! I brought Happy.”

James has no idea why she’d help them like that, but he’s not about to argue now. Stark throws himself back into the fight, and James urges Happy to get to safety. The fight ends shortly after that, Stark crushing the knockoff arc reactor in one fist, and James sighs.

He looks around for Pepper after that, but she’s nowhere in sight.

* * *

Stark’s birthday party is a catastrophe waiting to happen. James spends half the time just making sure nobody dies of alcohol poisoning, and the other half watching over Stark. He leaves Stark alone for one minute and comes back to find Pepper with an arm draped around his shoulder, whispering into his ear.

“What did I ever do to you?” he cries as Stark wanders off. “Why are you so intent on making sure the guy I have to protect dies!”

“Because you’d be better off if he did!”

James stares at her, stunned. Around them the party continues on, oblivious.

“Do you know what happened to his original guardian?” Pepper goes on, when James doesn’t say anything. “He got himself killed in that cave in Afghanistan, protecting Stark. That man is bad news, James. You’re better off without him.”

James doesn’t say anything for a long moment after that, then―

“I think he saw me on the race track. In Monaco.”

Pepper recoils, clearly not expecting that response. “What?”

“He looked right at me, Pep. It was eerie.”

“Great. First Yinsen, now you.” She stalks over to the bar and grabs a drink, which vanishes from human sight as she picks it up. “He’s going to get you killed, James. Yinsen got too attached and look what happened.”

“Why do you even care?” James asks, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Who even knows,” she mutters, sipping at her drink. “I’m losing my mind.”

James goes over to lean against the bar beside her. “I think you like me.”

“What? Ew. No.”

“You do! Why else would you be trying to get rid of my supposedly cursed danger magnet ward?”

“Uh, because I’m a demon and that’s what we do?”

“How about this,” he says, ignoring her. “What if you tried helping me keep him alive?”

Pepper frowns. “Why would I want to do that?”

“That way nobody has to die.”

“My way’s easier,” she mutters, but she doesn’t say anything else about the matter as she drains the rest of her drink.

As the party ends in the wee hours of the morning, James finds Stark face down on the ground, still in the armor, either asleep or unconscious. Pepper walks up behind him, making a face when she sees Stark.

“I know someone who can help,” she says after a moment, hands on her hips. “Give me a couple hours to find him.”

* * *

So Stark doesn’t die, at least not from the palladium poisoning. It’s a close thing with Hammer and Vanko, but with Pepper actually on his side this time somehow Stark manages to scrape by. The uneasy truce she and James have seems to be doing some good for Stark, who opens Stark Tower in New York and pioneers his reactor energy tech.

And then aliens show up. (One of them can see him, and he compliments James’s wings before James can get him to shut up. Stark watches the exchange suspiciously, though James thinks Stark just assumes Thor is kind of nuts.) But the aliens aren’t even the worst part. Stark carrying the nuke through the wormhole is.

James stares up at where Stark disappeared, and Pepper puts a hand on his shoulder. “There has to have been something I could’ve done,” he whispers, lost. “I could’ve taken the missile instead.”

“You’re the reason he was here to save the city,” Pepper says, keeping her voice gentle. “You did your job.”

“This job is bullshit!” James snaps, brushing off her hand. “What good am I if I can’t save him?”

“James―” Pepper starts, then cuts herself off, eyes wide. “James!” She points up at the wormhole, and James spins around, looking for what has Pepper so shocked.

A red and gold blur is falling from the wormhole in the sky as it closes. Without thinking, James spreads his wings and takes off.

His arms wrap around the middle of the armor, slowing its descent. Gently, he guides Stark down to the ground and sets him down. The faceplate comes off the helmet with a single touch, and then he touches a hand to Stark’s chest, over the dimmed suit reactor. Moments later, Stark takes a gasping breath, the armor shaking under James’s hand.

Stark blinks, peering up despite the sun overhead, and says, “Who the hell are you?”

James smiles, sunlight illuminating the white of his wings and making them shine. “My name’s James. We’ve got a lot to talk about.”


End file.
